Bachmann on Iowa TV: 'Waterloo'

Michele Bachmann is going up in Iowa with the first television ad of her presidential campaign, a 30-second spot titled “Waterloo” that Bachmann’s team says will start running statewide today.

The bio spot, produced by Strategy Group Media, features a direct-to-camera Bachmann talking about growing up in Waterloo, Iowa, her five children, her foster kids and her professional life.

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“I know we can’t keep spending money that we don’t have,” Bachmann says, pivoting to politics and touting her congressional record of fighting “the wasteful bailout [and] against the stimulus,” and pledging: “I will not vote to increase the debt ceiling.”

The commercial is upbeat, with a strumming guitar overlay as Bachmann speaks. The spot is going up just as Bachmann is introducing herself to Iowa voters, who already put her in a statistical tie for first place in a recent Des Moines Register poll.

She is making a serious push to win the Ames Straw Poll next month, and even some Democrats are taking note that she is running a professional campaign so far, with crisp visuals at her stump stops following an effective rollout.

POLITICO first reported yesterday that a statewide TV campaign was about to begin.